FEATURED GUESTS
In alphabetical order:
John
Banks is the Director of the Department of Natural Resources for the
Penobscot Indian Nation, a federally recognized Indian Tribe in Maine. Mr.
Banks has served the Penobscot Nation in this capacity since 1980, following
the enactment of the Maine Indian Land Claims settlement Act of 1980. As
Natural Resources Director, Mr. Banks has developed and administers a
comprehensive Natural Resources management program for his tribe, which
advances an integrated management approach, in recognition of the inter-
connectedness of all things in the natural world. Mr. Banks has served on
many local, regional, and national organization boards including the
National Tribal Environmental Council, Native American Fish and Wildlife
Society, National Indian Policy Center, and the Tribal Operations Committee
with USEPA. Mr. Banks has a BS degree in Forest Protection from the
University of Maine, where he was awarded an Indian Fellowship from the
office of Indian Education in Washington DC.
Michael
J. Good, MS. Biologist/naturalist, President of Down East Nature Tours
in Bar Harbor, Maine and Founder of Warblers and Wildflowers Festival
(1998-2007) and events coordinator for Acadia Birding Festival. He has over
25 years experience studying the birds of North America and brings a wealth
of knowledge about Neotropical migrants and the avifauna of the Eastern
United States. Michael has traveled extensively in the US, Alaska, Europe,
Australia, South America and Cuba. Michael is a regional business leader
promoting sound ecologically practices in business, government and land
development. As a Registered Maine Guide, Michael has been guiding
professionally for many years through his company Down East Nature Tours
focusing on avian ecology in the Gulf of Maine bioregion. Fields of
expertise include wetland ecology, ornithology, environmental education and
Developmental Biology. Michael spent many years studying numerous aspects of
the Gulf of Maine while employed at the Marine Biological Laboratory and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In his
spare time he maintains Three Pines Bird Sanctuary in Town Hill, Maine,
studying micro-habitat of Neotropical migratory birds on Mount Desert
Island, Maine and winter ecology in various Neotropical countries when given
the opportunity. He currently holds a BA (Biology) from Earlham College and
a MS (Developmental Biology) from the University of Utrecht, The
Netherlands.
Just recently, Michael was selected as the Best Birdwatching Guide by
Yankee Magazine:
"Biologist and Maine Guide Michael Good is simply batty about birds, and he
shares his knowledge with avian addicts and neophytes alike. Whether you’re
pining to see warblers, falcons, eagles, and hawks or seeking to add a
Nelson’s sharptailed sparrow to your life list, Good’s your man. He supplies
local transportation and a spotting scope."
John
Guarnaccia is a Waldoboro, Maine-based environmental consultant
presently focused on minimizing avian impacts at wind farms (in close
collaboration with Paul Kerlinger), conserving the habitats of critically
endangered birds, and boosting fund-raising capacity at conservation
organizations. He is also an avid, four-season vegetable gardener (à la
Eliot Coleman). His conservation career took an international turn in 1983
when his soon-to-be wife, Mercedes Villamil, talked him into translating
Robert S. Ridgely’s A Guide to the Birds of Panama into Spanish (a language
he really didn’t know at the time). John’s collaboration with Bob Ridgely
continues at Fundación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian nonprofit dedicated to
creating private reserves
dthat protect the last habitats of Ecuador’s most
critically endangered birds. John joined RARE Center for Tropical
Conservation (now known as Rare) in 1987 and was its Executive Director from
1990 to 1997. Under his direction, Rare became well known for its innovative
use of marketing, education, and scientific research to boost local
conservation capacity in the Caribbean, Latin America, and (since John’s
departure) many other parts of the world. He launched his consulting
business, Guarnaccia Ecological Services, in 1999.
Rebecca
Holberton is Associate Professor of Biology and Ecology at the
University of Maine in Orono. She received her Ph.D. in Biology at the State
University of New York at Albany in 1991. Her doctoral work focused on how
environmental factors, such as food availability and social conditions,
interact with internal control mechanisms (biological clocks) to shape
migration patterns in songbirds. Rebecca went on to do post-doctoral work at
the University of Washington, spending two summers of field research on
Alaska’s North Slope studying the breeding biology of various bird species.
She also spent an austral winter at sea around the island of South Georgia
in the South Atlantic, studying how various seabird species, such as diving
petrels, prions, and penguins, cope with extreme weather conditions
throughout the long Antarctic winter. Her team was the first to collect
hormone samples from wintering King and Gentoo penguins, as well as over a
dozen other seabirds, at South Georgia. Rebecca’s first academic position
was at the University of Mississippi (1993-2000), during which she studied
the ecology, behavior, and physiology of migratory songbirds crossing the
Gulf of Mexico. She also developed a research program at sites in Churchill,
Manitoba, and throughout New England, focusing on how Blackpoll warblers
prepare for the extraordinary migrations they make out over the North
Atlantic to reach their wintering grounds in Amazonia. As a physiologist,
she spent a winter in New Zealand working with colleagues to explore ways of
bringing the Kakapo and other endangered species into breeding condition.
Since joining the faculty at the University of Maine in 2000, Rebecca has
been collaborating with colleagues at the Smithsonian Institute, USF&W Maine
Coastal Island National Wildlife Refuge, University of New Brunswick, and
Environment Canada on several projects that investigate how events birds
experience away from the breeding grounds can be important determinants on
subsequent breeding success. These studies often combine physiology with
environmental markers incorporated into blood, feathers, and claws during
the migratory and non-migratory stages to determine where birds either bred
or overwintered, and what migratory pathways they may use to reach their
destinations. These studies include alcids (Razorbills and Atlantic
puffins), terns, several species of shorebirds, and many species of
songbirds. A recent collaborative effort with USF&W revealed a previously
undocumented flyway across the Gulf of Maine, with an estimated one-quarter
to one-half million songbirds arriving in a localized region along the
mid-coast area during fall migration, and work is underway to investigate
this flyway further.
At UMaine, Rebecca teaches courses in animal behavior, ecology, and physiology and mentors undergraduate and graduate students. She has served on the board of several national ornithological societies and is currently on the national Council for the American Ornithologists’ Union as well as a board member for the Penobscot Valley Chapter of Maine Audubon. Rebecca publishes in a wide array of research journals, presents her group’s work to the professional and general public, and promotes public interest and citizen science involvement in the region. Rebecca lives in Hampden, where she studies British-U.S. Colonial history and archaeology, gardens, and collects antiques when she is not out at various field sites studying birds.
Eric
Hynes is Maine Audubon's Gilsland Farm naturalist and adult education
program coordinator. He teaches bird identification workshops and leads
field trips locally and abroad. Eric's life-long passion for wildlife, and
in particular birds, has led to extensive field work on raptors, migration,
and neotropical migrant songbirds from Panama to the Pribilofs. Eric sits on
the Maine Bird Records Committee, is the state's Breeding Bird Survey
Coordinator, and compiles the Rare Bird Alert for the state of Maine. Some
of his previous positions include: tour guide, environmental educator, owl
bander, and ground squirrel rustler. He is a certified Wilderness First
Responder.
Paul
Kerlinger received a M.S. and Ph.D from the State University of New York
at Albany in 1982, where his doctoral research involved using tracking radar
to study the aerodynamics and flight behavior of migrating hawks. He went on
to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Clemson University using mobile radars to
study night migrating songbirds. From there, Kerlinger was awarded a
National Science and Engineering Research Counsel of Canada research
fellowship at the University of Calgary. During three years in Canada, he
conducted field studies of wintering Snowy Owls on the prairies of Alberta.
After teaching and conducting research at the University of Southern
Mississippi,
he was named as Director of the Cape May Bird
Observatory for New Jersey Audubon Society. He served in that position from
1987 through 1994, during which time he also established the research
program for NJ Audubon and developed the center for Research and Education
for Audubon.
Kerlinger left the non-profit world in 1994 and established his consulting firm, Curry & Kerlinger, LLC, which focuses on issues related to birds, wind turbines, and, to a lesser degree communication towers. Curry & Kerlinger has assisted in the permitting of wind turbines in more than 15 states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, and Spain. Kerlinger’s research has focused on the flight behavior of migrating birds, habitat use by migrants, birding economics and ecotourism, and, more recently, the impact of tall structures on birds. He has published extensively in the scientific peer-reviewed literature and writes a column, Birds on the Move, for Birder’s World magazine. He also has published five books including How Birds Migrate published by Stackpole Books, Flight Strategies of Migrating Hawks published by the University of Chicago Press, and The New York City Audubon Society Guide to Finding Birds in the Metropolitan Area (coauthored with Marcia Fowle) published by Cornell University Press. Kerlinger lives in Cape May, NJ and in his spare time tends an organic garden, fly fishes, and co-owns a website, CapeMayTimes.com, with his wife Jane.
Zack
Klyver is head naturalist of Bar Harbor Whale Watch and has been guiding
whale and seabird trips on the Gulf of Maine for twenty years. He has worked
with the Center for Marine Conservation and the research organizations Cape
May Bird Observatory and Allied Whale. Zack has also spent a season as a
marine mammal lecturer for Abercrombie and Kent guiding trips to Antarctica
and during the austral summer saw seven species of Penguin and five species
of Albatross. He has been an avid birder since he began feeding birds at the
age of twelve.
Steve
Walker is a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife. Steve is currently the coordinator of Maine's
Beginning with Habitat Program. Beginning with Habitat is the primary public
outreach and local implementation arm of Maine's State Wildlife Action Plan.
In this role, Steve works with municipalities and land trusts throughout the
state to advance strategic approaches to conservation that effectively
address Maine's 213 Species of Greatest Conservation Need and Focus Areas of
Statewide Ecological Significance. Prior to his work for the State of Maine,
Steve was the Natural Resources Planner for the Town of Brunswick which
continues to be a leader in local conservation efforts in southern Maine.
Steve also has many years of experience working as a consulting wildlife
biologist with Woodlot Alternatives (now Stantec) assisting clients with a
full range of field investigations as well as local, state, and federal
permit coordination. Steve serves on his local planning board and serves on
the board of the Brunswick-Topsham Land trust. Steve received a degree in
Environmental Studies from Brown University and a degree in Wildlife Ecology
from the University of Maine, Orono.
Jeffrey
V. Wells , Ph.D. is the Senior Scientist for the International Boreal
Conservation Campaign and Boreal Songbird Initiative, Seattle-based
non-profit organizations working internationally for the conservation of
North America's Boreal forest. Dr. Wells works from a satellite office in
Gardiner, Maine. He has had a wide-ranging career in bird conservation and
birding. After receiving his undergraduate degree in biology from the
University of Maine at Farmington in 1988 he went on to earn Ph.D. and
Master's degrees in avian ecology from Cornell University. He went on to
work for the National Audubon Society, first as Bird Conservation Director
for the New York State office, then as the National Director of Bird
Conservation. Dr. Wells completed the first book on Important Bird Areas in
North America in 1998 when he published Important Bird Areas in New York
State, a highly acclaimed handbook to help determine highest priority bird
conservation areas for use by state and federal agencies, land trusts, and
others. This book, along with his other work, helped firmly establish
Audubon’s U.S. Important Bird Areas program, now the largest of its kind in
the world. During his tenure with Audubon, Dr. Wells was located at the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where he continues as a Visiting Fellow of the
Lab. Dr. Wells was the leader of Cornell's first Ivory-billed Woodpecker
search team to investigate reports of the species in Arkansas in spring
2004.
Dr. Wells is an active birder and for 12 years was a member of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Sapsucker's birding team, which won the prestigious World Series of Birding in 2001 and 2002. His contributions as a member of the World Series team were instrumental in helping the Lab raise more than $150,000 each year for the Lab's conservation work. Dr. Wells has birded throughout much of the North American continent from the Northwest Territories of Canada to Veracruz, Mexico, and in the Caribbean, where he has led birding trips in the Lesser Antilles and is an expert on the birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. To promote conservation on the islands, he and his wife Allison Childs Wells have created the websites www.arubabirds.com and www.bonairebirds.com. Dr. Wells has been active in bird conservation at every level from working with local land trusts to purchase land for Cerulean Warblers to developing bird conservation plans for IBAs and ecoregions. He spent much of the 1980s researching and working to protect grassland birds in a rare remnant native grassland in southern Maine—work that led to the purchase of the site for conservation. His work now focuses on conservation of the largest remaining wilderness area in North America—Canada’s Boreal Forest—especially through advocating for establishment of large, multi-million acre protected areas. He also serves on the board of the Boothbay Region Land Trust and on the Penobscot River Restoration Trust’s Science Steering Committee.
Dr. Wells is an active speaker and writer. He maintains a blog for the Boreal Songbird Initiative at www.borealbirds.org/blog and has authored or co-authored hundreds of scientific papers, reports, and popular articles on birds and bird conservation . These include several family accounts co-authored with his wife Allison, in the Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. His book, Birder's Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk, published in Fall 2007 by Princeton University Press, is the first of its kind—a bird book for bird conservation. Wells lives in Gardiner, Maine, with his wife, young son, and two indoor cats.
ADDITIONAL GUESTS
In alphabetical order:
Leslie Clapp graduated from Ithaca College with a BS in Photography. She traveled extensively and got seriously interested in birds after a trip to East Africa in '99. In 2004, she became the president of Downeast Audubon, a chapter of Maine Audubon, and continues in that role today. She is passionate about creating backyard habitats for birds and teaching others how to improve their yards as well.Cheryl Daigle is the community liaison and outreach coordinator for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked with various conservation groups in Maine and Massachusetts, including The Nature Conservancy, Forest Society of Maine, Cobscook Bay Resource Center, and Maine Sea Grant. The focus of her work has primarily been to raise awareness about the natural environment and to engage people in stewardship of their local environment and/or habitat restoration projects. She is also a writer and poet, and serves as a correspondent to Orion magazine. She lives by the Penobscot River with her family in Old Town.
Alison C. Dibble, Ph.D., of Brooklin, Maine, is a plant conservation biologist who serves on the adjunct faculty at the University of Maine School of Biology and Ecology, in Orono, and is a cooperating research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. She was a board member of the Blue Hill Heritage Trust for 15 years, and President from 2001-2003. She taught plant taxonomy at U Maine and at College of the Atlantic. Today she runs a consulting firm, Stewards LLC, which provides research and consultation on plant conservation to agencies such as the Maine Forest Service, land trusts, and individuals
Ed Hawkes, a Bar Harbor bird carver, carving instructor, and avid
birdwatcher, will demonstrate his carving process at Alone Moose gallery. Also
on display will be a number of his finished carved birds. He has won numerous
national and international competitions including a Best of Show for a life size
loon. Ed was one of the artists selected to work on an endangered species
project for the Visitors Center at the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research
Reserve in Naples, Florida. He carved and painted two nesting and six flying
Least Terns and a Red-cockaded Woodpecker for this display. His two nesting
Least Terns are displayed in a seashore diorama demonstrating loss of their
critical habitat due to overuse of beaches by humans. Ed’s six flying Least
Terns are mounted swirling up the wall above the diorama. And his Red-cockaded
Woodpecker is part of the upland habitat display demonstrating the need for
periodic burning. These endangered woodpeckers, as well as many other species,
rely on the periodic burning of the undergrowth to maintain their habitat.
Billy Helprin lives in Bass Harbor and has been interested in
birds and other wildlife as long as he can remember. He has a Master of Science
degree from Utah State University and a Master of Arts in Teaching. Billy has
enjoyed leading wildlife explorations and studies in the Rocky Mountain region
for Great Plains Wildlife Institute, the Teton Science School, and Abercrombie
and Kent; and in Kenya for the School for Field Studies. He has been involved
with avian research and inventory projects in Ohio, Maine, Wyoming and
Guatemala. Whenever possible, Billy enjoys getting out with friends or on his
own to see and hear which bird species are nearby and what they are up to.
Steve Ingraham is the Birding and Naturalist Product Specialist for
Carl Zeiss Sports Optics. He is actively involved in product design and
management at Zeiss, representing the needs of birders and naturalists, and at
festivals and conventions all around the country (and world) where he represents
Zeiss to birders and to the birding community as a whole. Before Zeiss, Steve
was the editor of the Tools of the Trade section in Birding Magazine (American
Birding Association), and editor/publisher of BetterViewDesired and
BetterViewDesired.com on the World Wide Web.
Craig Kesselheim lives with his family in Southwest Harbor,
and has been birding ever since he was hooked by a college ornithology course in
1973. He has birded North America from the Canadian and Alaskan tundra to the
Florida Everglades, to the mountain west and desert southwest. Craig appreciates
being humbled several times a year by confusing plumages, songs or silhouettes –
it is what makes birding a lifelong learning project. Although not a competitive
lister, Craig is avid about citizen science, submitting most of his daily
sightings to www.eBird.org . Craig has birded Maine locales, on and offshore,
for about 25 years. Professionally, Craig is a career educator employed by the
Great Schools Partnership in Portland, Maine.
David Lamon, M.S., is the Executive Director of the Somes-Meynell
Wildlife Sanctuary and serves as President of the Mount Desert Island Water
Quality Coalition. His work focuses on environmental conservation, restoration,
monitoring, and education. As a naturalist he enjoys spending time in aquatic
environments
Kristen Lindquist is Development Director for Coastal
Mountains Land Trust, based in her hometown of Camden, and also a freelance
writer and poet with two published chapbooks. In addition to a monthly nature
column for the Herald-Gazette, her work has been published most recently in A
Coastal Companion, the Bangor Daily News, and Down East magazine. An avid
birder, she often leads bird walks in the midcoast area. She also serves on the
board of Friends of Maine Seabird Islands.
Rich MacDonald has worked in the field of ecology, for nearly 25
years, with an emphasis on birds. His ornithological interests have taken him
from New York's Adirondack Mountains to the Dominican Republic and Mexico and,
since 2002, to the coast of Maine. He has worked on the science staff of The
Nature Conservancy and has taught ornithology at College of the Atlantic. Among
his diverse experiences, Rich has also served as naturalist for radio persona
Garrison Keillor on all three cruises of A Prairie Home Companion...and will be
again working with GK on the March 2010 cruise of the western Caribbean. Among
his credentials, he is also a licensed guide in Maine and New York, teaching sea
kayaking, white-water kayaking, canoeing, and telemark skiing. Currently, Rich
is vice president of the Downeast Chapter of Maine Audubon. In May, Rich will be
opening a new business in Bar Harbor: The Natural History Center.
Abby McBride - Abby McBride has provided illustrations for Acadia
Birding Festival since 2008. A birder, field researcher, and self-taught artist,
she studied biology at Williams College. Her work appears regularly in New York
City Audubon's newsletter.
Becky Marvil lives with her family in Yarmouth, Maine. She has a
background
from Biology (Earlham College) and in Ornithology and Computer
Science
(University of Colorado), and runs her own
computer programming/webpage design business. She is pleased to be a part of the
Acadia Birding Festival, combining her skills in webpage design and birding.
During her free time, she can be found birding with friends in the Portland
area, helping with numerous bird surveys, and chasing after rarities. Her
summers are spent programming, birding, sailing, hiking, and biking on Mount
Desert Island.
Robert L. Shaw - Born and raised in Bar Harbor, Robert is
proud to be an "island native". Ask him anything about Mount Desert Island, the
local environment, or his favorite subject, fishing. He is sure to provide lots
of interesting tales. Robert received a BS in Recreation Management and Business
Administration in 1984 from the University of Maine. When he is not kayaking or
fishing, he enjoys camping, swimming, scuba diving, boating and paddling the
Florida Everglades. Robert sits on the Board of Directors of the Bar Harbor
Savings & Loan Association.
Scott Swann B.A and M.Ph, College of the Atlantic: For the
last 12 years Scott has taught Ornithology, field ecology and marine botany at
College of the Atlantic where he is also curator of the collection at the Dorr
Museum of Natural History. Scott and his wife drove from Bar Harbor Maine
through central and south America to Terra del Fuego on an epic bird watching
voyage.
Steven Valleau has been Carver-in-Residence at the Wendell
Gilley Museum since 1985. A keen birder since boyhood, Valleau earned a biology
degree from the University of Maine at Orono and Indiana University. As a senior
however, his true vocation was revealed by several art courses. Encouraged by
art and ornithology professors, he decided to become a professional bird carver.
Sought after as both an artist and a teacher, Valleau has taught students of all
ages and created carvings that range from miniature shorebirds to life-size
great blue herons. His works are in many private and public collections. The
façade of the Gilley Museum features a series of bas-reliefs depicting seven
native bird species, which Valleau created for the 15th anniversary of the
Museum. Inside the Museum, visitors can see his latest works and
works-in-progress and see how wood can become a warbler.